August 2013

August 31, 2013

Quite often in the history of fashion, designers appropriated elements and motifs from Native American culture. Recent seasons also saw High Street retailers joining in, borrowing this trend, and unfortunately ending up exploiting this inspiration without showing any respect towards Native Americans. This wasn't certainly the case, though, with two young graduates from the School of Fashion at San Francisco's Academy of Art University.

Fashion designer Pipatchara Kaeojinda and knitwear designer Emma Mengchen Yang, moved for their collection - presented in May during the school's fashion show - from Native Americans. The designers approached their inspiration with respect, studying and researching various aspects of the Native American culture, and then reworking some elements from traditional costumes and accessories in knitted pieces (in an earthy palette borrowed from Native American art) characterised by an innovative combination of different stitches.

Can you please introduce yourself to our readers?Pipatchara Kaeojinda: I was born in Bangkok, Thailand. I studied at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, for a year and a half, and then transferred to the Academy of Art University to begin my path as a fashion designer. I was inspired a lot by my mother who is an artist.Emma Mengchen Yang: I come from distant Beijing, China. From the tapestry of this city I came to feel the strong vibrations of art and fashion. As a young girl, my interest in fashion went from my doll's clothes to the clothes that adults around me were wearing. As I grew older and came to graduate from high school, I came to a point in my life where I should choose the direction of my higher education. I was fortunate enough to have parents that allowed me to choose where my interests were and I opted to follow my interest in fashion design at AAU.

What's the most important thing you learnt from your years at AAU?Pipatchara Kaeojinda: I’ve learnt so much and not only just design and construction-wise, but also regarding the responsibility that designers must have - punctuality, time management, friendship and so on. I also got an internship with Ralph Lauren in New York during last summer through the project I did at AAU for Joe’s Black Book competition. Emma Mengchen Yang: When I began at AAU I started with a major in woven design but, after taking a course in knitwear, I found myself stimulated by this form of art. I learnt a lot of skills as a double major woven and knitwear designer. But, to me, the school doesn't only teach students the skills but also art and the different ways you can think about it or approach it.

How did you feel at showcasing your collection at the Academy of the Arts fashion show?Pipatchara Kaeojinda: It was a very exciting moment seeing the garments we worked on for the past six months on the runway. Even if it was for just about 5 minutes for each collection, it was definitely worth all the hard work!Emma Mengchen Yang: It was a successful fashion show to me. We spent a lot of time on the collection and the show gave us the opportunity to check our work with all the audience.

Can you tell us more about the main themes that inspired this collection?Pipatchara Kaeojinda: The collection was inspired by the tribal elements of the Native American culture. The collection includes indeed traditional motifs, details and silhouettes translated into modern pieces. The neutral colour palette and fabrication that I chose reflect the idea of nature and untouched beauty. Many of the designs included incorporate leather as a reference to the main inspiration.Emma Mengchen Yang: As I researched and explored the main theme for the collection and the history and background of Native Americans, I found myself getting more and more interested in it. There is a special connection between art and Native Americans: you can clearly and easily spot special details in their clothes, furniture, jewelry and headdresses that can be considered as art and that can offer a knitwear designer infinite inspirations.

Which yarns did you employ for this collection and were you inspired by particular stitches or techniques for your knitwear?Emma Mengchen Yang: Merino wool, cotton and viscose, since this was a Fall collection. While developing the swatches I transferred the decoration and details of Native Ame rican clothes or accessories into new knitwear techniques. I did explorenew techniques based on ripple and ladder stitches. For example, one of my knitwear swatches is based on the woven fabric and special totem found in the native American culture. The first time you see the swatch you probably think it is a piece of interesting and flat fabric, but the design is not actually flat and, if you look at it more closely, you realise that the piece is composed of three-dimensional strips, that make the whole look standout. I also combined the cable stitch and a lot of hand stitch techniques into my garment designs to make richer pieces.

Did you find any stages of your collaboration difficult or challenging?Pipatchara Kaeojinda: I was lucky since Emma was a great collaborator. We always talked and discussed about everything throughout the whole process. For me it wasn’t difficult at all. I also think I’ve learnt so much by collaborating with another designer, it made me understand more about the constructions and yarns in knitwear design.Emma Mengchen Yang: Whenever there are two designers working on one collection things get a bit more complicated as different people have different ideas. Yet in our case we never got any communication problem as we always talked about the designs together and shared our real feelings, finding a way to balance the entire collections.

Is there an artist/designer who inspires you? Pipatchara Kaeojinda: Stella McCartney. Her designs always inspired me. I love her design aesthetic.Emma Mengchen Yang: As a fashion designer I'm interested in any good design. So there isn't just one designer or amazing artist who inspires me in particular.

What are your future plans? Pipatchara Kaeojinda: I got a scholarship from AAU to go and study abroad in Paris, France, for a year. After that, I would love to come back and work in New York as a designer.Emma Mengchen Yang: Fashion to me is really close to my life, it may include style and beauty, but it is not limited to an expensive garment - it is an inspiration that pervades my life. I see my future in fashion design as a work in progress opportunity to continue to grow my skills and develop a better knowledge of this industry. I have the opportunity to do a one-year scholarship as an exchange student at the Ecole de la chambre syndicale in Paris, France, to study fashion design. If all goes well, I will be able to gain further experience in the fashion design industry over the next few years, and eventually build and develop my own fashion brand. This will be my chance to make my dream come true while serving at the same time the community I'll live in in a very special way.

Images of Pipatchara Kaeojinda and Emma Mengchen Yang's collection in this post by Randy Brooke/WireImage

August 30, 2013

Design Flanders is not new to travelling exhibitions: last year, as a follow up to the "Je Suis Dada" event revolving around Surrealism in Flemish design, it launched "Tales of Heroes". The latter focused on design objects based on a contemporary vision, but combined with a sense of nostalgia, it therefore featured pieces projected in the future and set to bring innovation into our lives while being at the same time strongly linked with the past.

The main purpose of such designs is to provide an answer to our collective thirst for a recognisable environment, for icons of the past and for processes inspired by traditional craftsmanship. The resulting objects tell a story and become therefore symbols of sensory and emotional experiences.

After last year's tour, "Tales of Heroes" is arriving back home in Belgium at the Design Flanders gallery. Opening next week, the event will feature crafty and semi-industrial interior design pieces, jewellery, furniture and small objects made by Flemish and Brussels-based designers.

Most pieces on display are produced in smaller runs, whether using traditional craftsmanship or industrial production. Each piece is also attributed its own role as hero within a broader cultural context in the exhibition and each object represents a type of heroic story that leads to another story.

Linde Hermans' "Feet on the Ground" shoes look for example like classic clogs made in a material similar to clay, but they are actually designed with the medical world in mind as they can be sterilised under high pressure and temperature; Jorge Manilla Navarrete's "Existence Ignored" necklace, part of his "Ese Hombre" collection, combines religion and modern design as the artist used statues of Christ to make his pieces that look like jewellery but may be employed as amulets, worn as protection or as enigmatic objects, as he states on his site.

"Tales of Heroes" also features 10 drawings by artist Brecht Evens that recount the poetic tale of two archetypical figures, everyday heroes in an imaginary world full of recognisable objects.

August 29, 2013

Previous posts on this site analysed every now and then the connection between fashion and religion, two rather different things that throughout history found themselves linked together.

While the Catholic Church often used its pomp and fast or its connections with certain designers (remember Jean Charles de Castelbajac designing the vestments for the 1997 Paris World Youth Day, Italian fashion designer Nanni Strada creating an architectural chasuble in 2005 or Giorgio Armani donating a while back the ecclesiastical vestments for the opening of the parvis of the new church on the island of Pantelleria?) to project an aura of power on people, creative minds quite often took inspiration from certain religious symbols and themes for fashion collections, photo shoots, presentations or music gigs. Besides, it is not rare for the semantic field of religion to be employed in fashion with designers being considered as prophets, while certain magazines are dubbed as fashion's "Bible", and style is the one and only virtue, replacing the teleological virtues of faith, hope and love.

Karl Lagerfeld even called himself a "fashion missionary" and talked about fashionable Popes declaring Pius XII (who was definitely more interested in the looks than in the message...) was chic in a soon to be broadcast German documentary that compares fashion to religion, entitled "Mode Als Religion". According to a piece published a while back on WWD, the author of the documentary, Martina Neuen, even spoke to a neurologist proving that the emotional reactions of the brains of a Catholic priest and a fashionista are the same when facing their own "religions".

Even the Autumn/Winter 2013 collections present some images borrowed from religion and when they were showcased in February in the wake of Pope Benedict XVI's resignation, they seemed extremely fashionable.

They would have probably remained fashionable if Benedict's successor wouldn't have introduced a new minimal approach to the liturgy and to life in general.

In the last few weeks Pope Francis also developed the habit of picking the phone and calling people who write him letters as if they were old friends.

In a way, it is as if fashion showing connections with the most ostentatious side of religion is suddenly unfashionable. Think about it: while a Pope rejects the pomp and decides to chat with ordinary people, fashion designers - still terribly unreachable and quite often pretentious - turn once again to specific religious symbols to echo untrendy visions of splendour and magnificence.

A few examples? Dolce & Gabbana's Autumn/Winter 2013-14 women's ready-to-wear collection includes richly embroidered dresses (some of them in cardinal red, others in gold to evoke the richness of chalices and icons) featuring images of mosaics lifted from Sicily's Cathedral of Monreale, that can be accessorised with golden crowns, cross earrings, branded rosary necklaces, or with a bag named after Agata, Patron Saint of Catania.

If you can afford it, you may even opt for D&G's Spring/Summer 13 high fashion collection that includes a golden wedding outfit complete with crown and veil that perfectly reproduces the attire of certain statues of the Virgin Mary in a more blasphemous key than Christian Lacroix's "bride Vs religion icon" design that closed his Haute Couture 2009-2010 fashion show (View this photo) and that was still reminiscent of the attire of the Virgin of El Rocío (venerated in Almonte, Spain), clad in rich brocades and surrounded by flowers.

Fashionistas who want to comment on the excesses of Catholicism, can also opt for Sarah Burton's Autumn 2013 collection for Alexander McQueen, with its punk representation of nuns, cardinals, and popes, while for those who want to go for more colours and less pomp there is Karla Spetic's collection with a series of dresses, tops and skirts featuring prints of the placid face of Jesus as the Good Shepherd.

There are obviously enough religion-themed garments also for what regards menswear: Riccardo Tisci delved once again into the depths of his Catholic education for his S/S 2013 menswear collection for Givenchy that included images of the Virgin Mary sampled from William Adolphe Bouguereau's paintings "The seated Madonna", "The Madonna of the Roses" and "The Madonna of the Lilies" remixed with images of a beheaded Baby Jesus (again from Bouguereau's "The seated Madonna") or with parts of Bouguereau's "Pietà" (Tisci has taken to extremely silly levels his fake obsession with the Catholic religion, including in previous collections designs that called to mind First Communion dresses and priest's vestments, or coming up with more "arty meditations" on the same theme such as a picture with Marina Abramović portrayed breastfeeding him in a Pietà kind of pose...).

Those who prefer the more classic Fellini-esque obsession with Catholicism à la Roma will find enough inspirations in D&G's Autumn/Winter 2013-14 menswear collection featuring tops with prints of images of assorted saints, of Our Lady of Fatima and the three shepherd children; shirts with priests on bicycles, scarves that look like clergy stoles and, for the evening, lace jackets that seem to reproduce the intricacies of fine sacramental linens.

But the list of exchanges between fashion and religion is actually pretty long and goes back to the late '30s when Elsa Schiaparelli borrowed the symbols of the Vatican flag and embroidered Saint Peter’s keys on an evening suit launching the "Celestial Line"; twenty years later, the Sorelle Fontana created the "pretino" dress (literally "little priest dress").

"The little priest dress was created in 1956," remembers Micol Fontana, "it was the result of a sort of combination between creativity, friendship with Ava Gardner and respect for the religious institutions. My sisters and I - all faithful practicing Catholics - asked the authorities the permission to design the dress and the Vatican approved it. Their positive answer filled us with pride and gratitude."

Voluptuous Anita Ekberg donned a similar version of the "pretino" in Fellini's film La Dolce Vita, disturbing the bourgeois consciences of the self-righteous (Krizia recreated two models of the same dress in the '90s; and a fake "pretino" was also donned by Victoire de Castellane as Anita Ekberg in a Pitti installation by Olympia Le Tan) but it was only in the '80s that the religious theme became a folkloristic product of consumption and that the secular and the mundane were invested with a sacred aura.

There were hints at religion in a photoshoot by Helmut Newton for Vogue Italia in December 1983 (featuring jewellery by Prada/Ugo Correani), a shoot that anticipated the less original one styled by Maurizio Cattelan and featuring supermodel Linda Evengelista for W’s Art Issue (November 2009 - View this photo).

Thierry Mugler's fashion show for his Autumn/Winter 1984-85 collection featured nuns, cherubs, a Madonna and Child (View this photo); Hasidic Jews, the crucified Christ, the bleeding Sacred Heart, ex-votos and the Communion chalice, often reappeared here and there in Jean Paul Gaultier's collections (among them also in the Spring/Summer 2007 Haute Couture collection).

The Patron Designer of the "Kitsch and Shock", Gianni Versace, was among the first ones to tangibly prove that, if sex sells, so does religion: some of his sensual creations from the early '90s featured monumental crosses and icons of the Virgin and Child, elements inspired by the opulent and gilded Byzantine mosaics in Ravenna. Icons and crosses also characterised Versace's screen-printed twill scarves and the Greek cross motif came back a few years later in Versace’s glamorous gold evening gowns.

Before Versace, Chanel and Balenciaga were inspired by the opulence of Byzantium, a theme Karl Lagerfeld explored again in Chanel’s Pre-Fall 2011 collection, borrowing ideas for his designs from the mosaics in the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo; ten years before that, John Galliano's show for Dior's Haute Couture Autumn/Winter 2001 collection was opened and closed by a cleric wearing a gown with embroideries by Lesage.

Pop star Madonna appropriated religious imagery into her music and her lifestyle since the '80s, appearing in her videos and on stage wearing rosary beads and crosses as necklaces, sparking a huge debate when in the video for "Like a Prayer" a Holy apparition manifested to the singer, or when she sung crucified on stage during her tours.

As the years passed we grew so accustomed to seeing religion entering fashion and pop culture that not many people criticised models wearing luxurious bags covered in Miraculous Medals or gold and silver heart-shaped ex-votos pinned at the waist (Dolce & Gabbana’s Autumn/Winter 2010-11 collection) or questioned Anna Dello Russo cavorting outside a fashion show in a D&G black cloak with golden floral embroideries (Autumn/Winter 2012-13 collection) that simply replicated the traditional dress donned by statues of Our Lady of Sorrows.

For the Autumn/Winter 2011-12 season Cantarelli did an advert showing a painting of a crucified Christ dressed in a trendy sharply cut suit accompanied by the slogan "Devoti allo stile" ("Devoted to Style") that bizarrelly seemed to offend more the members of the right wing party in Italy than devout Catholics.

Many designers find the pomp-and-circumstance of the Church, the craftsmanship behind the rich vestments, and the beauty of some icons and statues incredibly inspiring. But there is one main reason why fashion designers love using religion as inspiration: on the surface you may think they are trying to be extremely controversial, but the truth is that copying religious paintings and imagery is copyright free. It is indeed very unlikely to end up in court for copyright infringement if you reproduce in your design a dress donned by a statue of the Virgin Mary.

In fact, you could argue that, employed by fashion, religion does not turn into an object of profane consumption because, in most cases, there is no meaning attached to these images. Critics, sociologists or researchers may tell you the key to understand the fashion and religion connection stands in the object, in the garment or accessory that becomes “sacred”, or in the designer or the model who becomes a religious icon, an untouchable and unreachable saint and so on, but the sad truth is that these symbols are not used in provocation or to find holiness in a wardrobe, they are essentially employed to save money.

Yet not all designers could be considered as exploitative: in 1992 the late swimwear designer Lea Gottlieb created a collection entitled "Jerusalem of Gold". The title of the collection - which was not meant to be sold - referred to a gold jewel (believed to be a necklace) that Rabbi Akiva gave his devoted wife Rachel as a sign of his love and appreciation.

The collection was indeed characterised by bejewelled garments and pieces decorated with Jewish symbols including the Star of David, the Menorah, and the priestly breastplate (Hoshen) inlaid with twelve gems in twelve squares representing the twelve tribes of Israel.

After Gottlieb's death, some garments from the collection were found in her bedroom drawers folded in silk paper with a Siddur (prayer book) besides them.

Ayala Raz, curator of the exhibition "Lady of the Dasies", that a few months ago homaged Lea Gottlieb at Design Museum Holon, states: "As far as I know there was never any objection for using these Symbols; on the contrary, she was mostly respected for using Jewish sources of inspiration, while representing Israel abroad".

Eleven years ago a long-forgotten play entitled Elle and written by Jean Genet was staged in New York. Its cast included Alan Cumming as The Pope and outrageous costumes by Vivienne Westwood.

Genet originally wrote it to attack the Church (apparently the writer was also inspired by the frequent apparitions of Pius XII in the papal chair - note the contrast: Genet wrote a vitriolic play inspired by Pius XII; Lagerfeld thinks the same pope was chic and stylish...), but the play also touched upon many modern obsessions including celebrity and the power of the image. At a certain point in the play, The Pope wonders if, when a man kneels at his foot, he venerates the foot or if it's the act of kneeling that is significant.

In the Pope's dilemma there is the key to understand the way modern fashion uses religious imagery: the fashion industry doesn't even refer to the pomp and circumstance and the apparatus around religion when it employs religious images, it doesn't criticises its links with the state, with politics or power, but very simply "venerates the foot", hoping that, in return, fashionistas will very simply keep on revering, venerating and - possibly - buying and wearing what it produces.

The above post was the background research for a longer piece written a while back for another publication. Contacted through their PR agents, the following houses - Dolce & Gabbana, Versace, Givenchy, Christian Lacroix, Vivienne Westwood, Jean Paul Gaultier - refused to provide feedback about fashion and religion (in some cases the PR agents were more scared than the actual designers), proving there is not much controversy in fashion, while there is a lot of money and fear of losing buyers.

August 17, 2013

Haitian Vodou has direct roots in Africa as many deities in its pantheon have African precedents, even though their characters have been elaborated and altered over time through amalgamation with Amerindian and European divinities, including the saints of the Catholic Church.

Richly decorated banners (examples are currently on display at the 55th International Venice Art Biennale) are employed at the opening of Vodou ceremonies and, undoubtedly, quite a few of them look quite beautiful with their eye-catching colours and glittering sequins.

These decorative elements are employed to entice the spirits to enter the temple and possess devotees. The tradition of making such banners flourished under colonial occupation in Africa. Nearly all Haitian Vodou practitioners use flags or drapo which represent gods or spirits using iconography derived from depictions of Catholic saints, Masonic symbols, and martime lore, in addition to the veve, ritual designs believed to function as beacons for the ancestral spirits or Ioa.

The ancestral spirits are charaterised by different attributes, such as boats, playing cards, rainbows or sunglasses with one lens missing.

The creator god, Dambala, is usually represented with snakes, as the master of the sky. Dambala controls the life giving force of rain and is associated with fertility and wisdom. Dambala and the other Ioa can be invoked to help and offer counsel, providing immediate guidance and comfort to believers.

Yet the Ioa are also given to rage, lasciviousness or jealousy. Erzulie Freda for example is characterised by a heart-shaped veve and flirts with men but considers all women as enemies.

If you ever want to use Haitian Vodou banners as inspiration for your art works or a fashion collection, always remember to do so with respect in mind not to offend the devotees. In the case of Haitian Vadou banners, it would perhaps be more interesting to use them as the starting point to come up with a new embellishment technique or with innovative geometrical designs and patterns.

August 16, 2013

Quite often visitors to an exhibition shrug off the temptation to buy the related catalogue as they feel it contains photographic material they will be able to see online for free. This is not the case with the catalague for the exhibition "Willy Maywald, Hommage aux Chapeaux 1936-1968" (Willy Maywald, Tribute to Hats 1936-1968). This slim volume features indeed all the exclusive images (unavailable online) included in the exhibition currently on at the Atelier-Musée du Chapeau in Chazelles-sur-Lyon, France.

As you may remember from a previous post, the event is curated by Jutta Niemann, member of the Willy Maywald Association and an authority in the art of this photographer. The volume is ideal for fans of French fashion since it includes elegant models wearing creations by Christian Dior, Robert Piguet, Edward Molyneux, Jacques Fath, Jacques Heim, Elsa Schiaparelli, Pierre Cardin and Yves Saint Laurent, among the others.

There is also a lovely section on milliners that includes pictures of the "catherinettes" and a final part focusing on images of actors and actresses, dancers and celebrities with rare shots of Schiaparelli and Fath in 1952 at the "Bal de Rio".

In a nutshell, this is a genuine must for any fashion fan and for passionate lovers of black and white photography (and fashion designers will find a lot of inspirations in its pages - check out the sculptural dresses and gowns, Dior's glamour toque covered in juicy fruits or Fath's hat covered in a fabric characterised by an extremely modern geometrical print). I'm illustrating this post with this brief video to give you a very quick idea of the contents without revealing too much about the images.

For further information about the volume, contact the Association Willy Maywald - ADAGP, B.P. 60 - 78602 Maisons-Laffitte Cedex, France (Fax +33 1 39 627241) or the Atelier-Musée du Chapeau (the Willy Maywald exhibition is on at the museum until 15th September 2013).

August 15, 2013

Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) is one of those figures who can't be easily pigeonholed into a category, but could be considered an artist, painter, sculptor, sound, music and costume designer, and choreographer. Dubuffet also coined in 1945 the term "art brut" ("raw art" often referred to as "outsider art") to indicate the work of untrained artists, patients in psychiatric hospitals, prisoners, and fringe-dwellers.

Les Arts Décoratifs in Paris, in collaboration with the Fondation Dubuffet, is launching an exhibition in October that will make many Dubuffet fans rejoyce. "Jean Dubuffet. Coucou Bazar" pays a tribute to the artist while celebrating the 40th anniversary of his iconic animated painting created in the '70s.

"Coucou Bazar" was performed for the first time in New York from May to July 1973 at the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum. A second version was produced in the following September as part of the Festival d'Automne de Paris to accompany the retrospective in the Galeries Nationales de Grand Palais. In both these versions music was composed by Turkish musician Ilhan Mimaroglu.

A third version was organised by FIAT to be performed in Turin in 1978 and this time various recordings and musical experiments by Dubuffet himself were employed as its soundtrack.

The animated painting is the grand conclusion of Dubuffet's Hourloupe cycle. The Hourloupe decorations started with doodling with red, black and blue ball-point pens, and at times, rather than just abstract forms, they look more like extremely modern urban graffiti.

These configurations were employed for the set and setting - defined by Dubuffet as the "practicables" - and for the costumes as well. The practicables were made from panels of klégécell (a sort of wood), layered in resin and painted with a coat of vinyl acrylic. Some practicables were mounted on wheels or animated by machinery, others were operated by hand.

The costumes worn by the actors included masks, hats, robes, gloves and boots made in diverse materials - from painted rayon and cotton to epoxy resin, latex, and starched tarlatan.

As the dancers moved, they gave life to the painting, creating infinite series of combinations and trasforming the painting from a static representation into a real and movable landscape. Viewers therefore became part of this parallel fantasy, of this strange wonderland populated by surreal objects and creatures.

The event at Les Arts Décoratifs will bring back the show on stage thanks to costumed dancers performing the animated painting. Dubuffet has a special connection with the Musée des Arts Décoratifs since he made to the museum an outstanding donation from his collection in 1967 before creating his own foundation in 1973.

All the costumes and the practicables are usually preserved at the Jean Dubuffet Foundation in Périgny-Sur-Yerres, so "Coucou Bazar" at Les Arts Décoratifs will be a unique and unmissable chance to see once again the animated painting coming back to life in Paris."Jean Dubuffet. Coucou Bazar", 24th October - 1st December 2013, Les Arts Décoratifs, 107 rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris, France.

August 14, 2013

The early decades of the 1900s were particularly intriguing fashion and style-wise. When the first silent films started being released, the glamorous life of the actors and actresses generated a new passion - stardom - that made many ordinary people dream.

At the beginning of Beatrice Hitchman's debut novel Petite Mort Or, A Little Death, her protagonist Adèle Roux is just one of the many young girls struck by the impossible beauty of an unreachable film star.

Convinced she can make it in the industry, she runs away to Paris and obtains an audition at Pathé studios.

The results of the audition aren't as expected, but Adèle is rescued by André Durand, film producer, creator of spectacular cinematic illusions and husband of beautiful actress Luce, better known with her screen name, Terpsichore. André lands her a job as a seamstress in the costume department, then offers to become his wife's assistant in their household while being also his mistress. But things take an unexpected turn for André when Adèle and Luce start a relationship that is put at risk when the young girl is offered a role in the silent film Petite Mort.

The story is intertwined with brief flashbacks and with a personal investigation carried out by a journalist in the '60s researching the reappearance of the presumed lost Petite Mort, saved from the 1914 fire at the Pathé studios, but mysteriously missing a key scene revolving around a doppelganger.

Doubleness and duplicity are in many ways the main protagonists of Hitchman's story: Adèle has a younger sister, Camille, who follows her to Paris hoping to work as a make up artist at Pathé; Luce is a loved film star, but also a decadent and revengeful heroine; André is a brilliant inventor and an impenitent womanizer; Luce and André's Parisian mansion is not just a beautiful and lavish house, but it also hides terrible secrets behind its many locked rooms.

Hitchman worked as a film-maker and documentary video editor, and this explains her passion for action cuts, well-researched elements (details referring to optical effects and illusions in early silent films, but also to Thomas Edison and automata may have been inspired by another well-researched volume, Gaby Wood's Edison's Eve) and for her style, a sort of combination of twists and turns with clever references that interconnect the text together (Luce means "light", also the first word in the opening chapter).

The most interesting thing about this novel is not just the story or the way it is told, but the fact that it can't be filed under a specific genre: it has indeed got a complex plot with elements borrowed from historical novels (readers will visit not only Paris in the early 1900s, but also the late 19th century American south), pages in which erotic literature prevails (the title of the novel refers to the eponymous film that goes lost, but also to the euphemism for the post-orgasmic state of unconsciousness that may define some of the love scenes in the book and the awakening of sexuality in the main character) and a second part that is suspended between noir and thriller.

At the very end readers will discover that in this story – just like in the best filmic illusions à la Méliès – not everything is exactly as it looks, and even the "petite mort" of the title from fictitious silent film turns into that pleasant state of which Roland Barthes writes about, that blissful condition that grasps the attention of the reader captivating it forever.

August 13, 2013

When stuck for inspiration listen to the material you want to use for advice, architect Louis Kahn suggested his students. Yet, while this may seem like the most natural thing to do to genuinely grasp the essence of your designs, the fast rhythms of the fashion industry rarely allow you to sit, experiment and eventually develop innovative pieces and materials. That is not the case, though, with Orli Tesler and Itamar Mendelovitch.

After their studies at the Shenkar College Of Engineering And Design in Tel Aviv, Israel, fascinated by the possibilities that different materials could offer them, they founded the Textile Design Team Tesler + Mendelovitch and started an intensive research based around a personal obsession - looking for a way to make a hard material soft and a soft material hard.

Three and a half years later, after creating also the plinths for Sigalit Landau's "Madonna and Child" marble sculptures, they evetually got there. The duo developed a series of small and extra large clutches in different types of wood, including ebony and rosewood, characterised by a geometrically architectural design.

Architecture fans may spot in the "Wood Skin" clutches echoes of Louis Kahn's concrete tetrahedral ceiling at the Yale University Art Gallery; interior designers may link them to Art Deco furniture pieces, but the principle behind the clutches is very simple - the design duo just employed wood as if it were a fabric.

Besides, there is a precise aim behind this series of bags: while offering the wearer a timeless product made in a natural material reinvented in a modern key, Tesler + Mendelovitch are setting their own manufacturing codes based around high quality and slower production rhythms to oppose the rigid laws of the fashion industry and of mass production that want us all to look the same and that put too much pressure upon designers, depriving them of the necessary time to research and experiment more. To this purpose, the design duo mainly sells their made to order and limited edition products on their online store and on their Etsy shop, a choice that allows them to keep in touch with their clients while still being able to spend time on researching new and exciting materials.

Can you tell us more about your backgrounds?Orli Tesler: We studied at the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design in Tel Aviv. It's a school that offers degrees in different disciplines from industrial and graphic design to fashion design, textiles and art. The facilities are extremely good: since they have a science, engineering and plastics faculty, the facilities are open to everyone who wants to experiment and mess around with materials. So I have to give a lot of credit to our lecturers and to the school facilities for giving us the freedom and allowing us to go beyond our specific field, textile design.

You seem to have a fascination with materials rather than just textiles, did you develop it while at university?Orli Tesler: We started our first year studying traditional textile techniques, such as weaving, knitting and printing. I met Itamar who is my life and business partner at school where we realised we got along very well and had a good dynamic. Together we started thinking about interesting ways to incorporate textile techniques in different materials and we took a few courses in different kinds of plastics to understand polymers and fibres, be able to identify certain materials and incorporate them in our designs. The courses offered us the freedom to mess around and experiment without anybody telling us what or how to do things and that was great.

How long did it take to develop the material for your clutches?Orli Tesler: We started three and a half years ago and at the beginning it was a mess. We had decided to get a hard material and try to make it soft and vice versa to create a sort of illusion. We tried to see what we could do with the wood in our workshop, leftovers that were sitting there and we started to just cut it down, or fold it and bend it without breaking it. We just started experimenting giving it a soft layer or a polymer layer to add some sort of flexibility. At the beginning it looked terrible, but then eventually we got there almost by accident. I guess one of the key things was that we worked on surfaces for two years, so we didn't do any products or any shapes, just surfaces to experiment with different cutting techniques to see what worked and how to work with the fibres and the wood, because every material has its own direction when it comes to fibres, so you have to understand the direction of the fibre to cut against the grain or with the grain, since every cut causes the surface to change in a different way. Working on a surface frees you up as you're not so locked into the shape, since you're not creating a product. When you make a surface you can make it with tons of applications in mind that could be used in fashion, architecture, interior design, textiles and so on.

The surface of your clutches is very geometrical and architectural, did you reference any architects while working on it?Orli Tesler: A lot of it came through trials and errors, even though we worked following a specific method to understand how things work and how things are built, after all we're not engineers or scientists, but designers. In our case the material basically informed the shape, it told us what shape it was going to be according to how it behaved.

Did interior design inspire you? Orli Tesler: Itamar worked as assistant to Israeli artist, Sigalit Landau, and our work somehow started with furniture in mind since Landau commissioned us plinths for her marble sculptures, after seeing our surfaces. From the plinths we thought about tables and stools and then from there we kept on working on a smaller scale and we eventually got to the clutches.

Your clutches could be considered as timeless pieces, did you create your designs with the aim of being non-dependent from trends? Orli Tesler: That's a very important part of what we do - going back to handmade production and personalising a product and a design. Everything that we send out of our studio has been made according to the highest standards and with love, and it's not mass produced, so it doesn't come from a factory. This is vitally important for us. I always tell all those people who ask us when we are going to release our new product that we are a bit like the Slow Food movement - we do things at a slow pace. We all know the horror stories behind the mass produced garbage out there and there is no need to produce more of that stuff and become slaves to production. At the beginning we were really afraid about being copied, but we realised we produce a highly researched product with a unique method that it would be very difficult to reproduce if you hadn't gone through the same research stages we went through for three years, so there are no risks.

Do you feel that your products reflect the place you're living and working in? Orli Tesler: That's a good question. We do live in a warm climate and are surrounded by a passionate and loud society that is also a bit crazy. I guess it's not just by chance that we are attracted to wood: it is a warm material that connects you to nature and I have also realised that the people who are drawn to our clutches, but also to wood in general, are those who have a warm personality. Itamar and I have been living in Tel Aviv in a very urban environment for years. The south of the city is very interesting and intense, with lots of artists, but it's also very crowded, and you do feel at times out of touch with a more natural environment. So wood - but also other organic materials like cotton - can help you giving the impression that they bring some balance and calmness into your life. You hold a clutch near your body, so we naturally wanted it to feel good and somehow provide a balance for the wearer.

What's the creative scene like in Tel Aviv?Orli Tesler: It's vibrant in this city, but also in the rest of the country. There are a lot of pop up stores, and there is also a craft movement with people creating small quantities of things at a slower pace. We do know a lot of people who are designers, but also many talented artists and film-makers producing amazing work. In the last couple of years textile designers in Israel got a lot more recognition and that's great because they are bringing in new things. I love fashion design, but sometimes you get the feeling that what's out there is just a variation of something else that was popular in the past. But there are people here doing great things in different disciplines and that is really exciting. I have friends who are doing amazing things in knitwear, combining old techniques with new technologies and this is a very innovative approach that also comforts me a lot as this is a reaction to mass production.

Where do you sell your products? Orli Tesler: We did work with a couple of shops in Tel Aviv, but we sell most of the bags through our studio. We don't want to mass produce things as we want to have time to develop our products further. When you have other people selling your products, you sometimes feel that you're losing the interaction with the client while it's so nice to talk to people, email them or Skype with them. They tell me who they are and what they do and our relation becomes nicer and more personal as well.

Would you experiment with synthetic materials in future?Orli Tesler: We are actually working on a product that is synthetic and non-woven and also filters pollution. We are also trying to figure out a way to make a product that people can dispose of in a way that can be reused again. We are very much into sustainable products, but we must remember that the question of keeping something environmentally friendly is debatable. There are people who believe that cotton is more environmentally friendly than synthetic fibres, but a lot of energy and other resources go into cotton production. Polymers for example are wonderful, and if they are done in the right way they can be environmentally friendly, sometimes better than their natural counterparts. The most important point for us is to employ polymers that are reusable, so you can melt them down, remould and reuse them again. A heat sensitive polymer can be heated and reused and its quality would be as high as it was the first time it was employed. In a nutshell, for us it's fine to use polymers, it just depends from how you use them and how your product is manufactured.

August 12, 2013

Spending an entire summer day tidying up your personal archive may be considered by some people as a tedious activity. But it can actually turn into a fun game if, while leafing through old magazines, you spot a few gems such as the images featured in this post.

The three pictures included here are indeed taken from an old issue of Grazia magazine from my archive. They show how geometrical figures can inspire multi-purpose beach bags - apparently a 1959 trend.

The hemp, leather and wicker bags in the pictures were designed by Rosa Bonheur. One of the bags has actually got an interesting connection with interior design: once closed it could indeed be turned into a small beach table, a rather unusual - but pretty useful and fun - purpose.

August 11, 2013

As readers of yesterday's post may guess, the following Processing sketch was inspired by Samia Halaby's kinetic paintings and by one of her latest works, "Cadmium Red" (2013; last image featured in yesterday's post). Enjoy!